White House’s most powerful millennial takes on new role

Jared Kushner, Donald Trump’s son-in-law, is the most powerful millennial in America especially after what he’s done since Trump was elected president. (Photo via AP)

Donald Trump’s son-in-law might be the most powerful millennial in the White House yet.

Jared Kushner, husband to Ivanka and senior advisor to President Trump, was appointed to head the newly announced White House Office of American Innovation, which will seek to use business ideas to overhaul (and in some cases, privatize) government functions.

“This office will bring together the best ideas from Government, the private sector, and other thought leaders to ensure that America is ready to solve today’s most intractable problems, and is positioned to meet tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities,” Trump wrote in a statement Monday.

Kushner’s new office will report directly to the president. It will work almost like a business. Unlike his previous position alongside White House political advisor Stephen Miller, the innovation office will give him a wider reach across all industries, both in government and in the private sector. He will focus on a variety of issues including Veteran Affairs, technology and data, and some of his father-in-law’s individual projects, such as combating opioid addiction and expanding broadband Internet to every American home.

“We should have excellence in government,” he said in a Washington Post interview Sunday. “The government should be run like a great American company. Our hope is that we can achieve successes and efficiencies for our customers, who are the citizens.”

Kushner’s other roles will include being a ‘shadow diplomat’ to foreign government officials and negotiating peace in the Middle East. He will work closely with his wife, Ivanka, who will work unofficially out of her West Wing office.

The 36-year-old has had little political experience but offers a thick business portfolio, which includes taking over his father’s operations since he was just 27 when his father was arrested, and publishing the weekly New York Observer. Kushner is famous for making the most expensive single-building property deal in 2007 when he purchased 666 Fifth Ave for $1.8 billion.